Ramblings

The number one question I get from age groupers is “what do I use to fuel during training and Ironman racing?”. Unfortunately, what works for me won’t necessarily work for everyone. In fact, I have found that my own fueling is not a one-solution problem. There is no simple answer that will work for every person in all race conditions. As I get older and more experienced at long distance racing, I have found that what I need to consume daily to maintain my training load as well as what I need during a race changes yearly. This means that I need to continue to adapt and adjust each year to find the best formula for my body. At age 33, I started with First Endurance and their fuel as well as their daily multi-vitamin and optygen product were essential to enable me to race and train consistently. With First Endurance fuel and supplements, I was able to stay healthier over the entire season enabling me to achieve consistent race results. However, now that I am in my late 30s my needs have changed. Recently, I’ve struggled with my stomach in hot races and started working with Glukos to fuel during races. Their energy drink and gels have worked well for me in hot humid conditions like Kona where I have struggled like many Ironman athletes with nausea and vomiting. Their product is simple and digestible. In addition, after hard sessions, their protein bars and shakes are perfect for recovery. In addition, in order to support my training load and recovery, I started working with Enduropacks. Initially, I was drawn to Enduropacks for their Electrolyte Spray. I have struggled to ingest mineral and salt pills during hot Ironman races. The traditional salt pill regimen was not successful for me as was clearly evidenced by my meltdown in the lava fields in Kona the last two years. The spray allows me to get in salt and minerals either in my drink or separately and absorbs better than capsules. In addition, the Enduropacks liquid Multi-Vitamin and Glutamine Recovery Complex have keep me battling through some obstacles namely Lyme disease this year. I find the liquid multi-vitamin absorbs better and have been surprised to find myself feeling more resilient than I have in years. I don’t think that is a coincidence. I have noticed that in my late 30s that I need to be more careful about recovery and illness. With Glukos fuel and Enduropacks, I have managed to stay healthy unlike last year where I got sick on almost every flight. In addition as training has accelerated over the past month, I have responded very well to the load and been feeling great despite the demands I have put on my body. The recovery from training definitely seems faster, and my body has been durable something that is harder to maintain as...

As the spring came to an end, I found myself at a crossroads in my triathlon career. For the past year, despite the world’s best training, I have struggled to execute consistent performances in my races. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was letting down my coach and myself, and that it was time to either walk away from the sport or make a change. For the 18 months, I have had the incredible opportunity to live at home and work with Siri Lindley and her amazing team of athletes. I wouldn’t be where I am in my career without Siri. She has been an inspirational mentor and an incredible friend since she gave me my start in the sport in 2006, and she was gracious to take me on after my season-ending crash in 2013. Coming back to train with Siri was incredible. She has an enthusiastic energy and is completely dedicated to getting the best out of all her athletes every day. On the performance side, Siri’s record as a coach in the US is unmatched; her athletes dominate on the world stage from ITU Olympic distance to the Ironman world championships. Siri is an amazing leader.. But, I couldn’t seem to turn the training into race results. And, while I have no doubt we would figure it out eventually, I also know that my time in the sport is limited. So, after some very deep reflection, I made the incredibly difficult decision to go back to what had proven successful in the past. Now, I’m here in Switzerland and back under the supervision of Brett Sutton who coached me through the most successful years of my career. Brett, while with a different style than Siri, is equally accomplished having produced countless triathlon world champions over his coaching career. I approached Brett Sutton for the first time at the end of 2010 when I was at another crossroads in the sport and considering retirement. This time, I was at a similar point and knew that if he was willing to take me on his squad that Brett would do his best to help me find the consistent race form that I had under his tutelage in 2011-2013. Brett agreed to help guide me through my final years in the sport. This change will not allow me to live full time at home, but with the support of my husband, who has once again gotten behind me, we’ll both give triathlon a few dedicated years before I hang up the tri kit. This was not an easy decision to be taken lightly. In addition, this change has no guarantees. However, in the words of Arthur Ashe, “Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” When faced with an impasse, sometimes the only choice is to change direction, push onwards,...

There is one tiny but all-important piece of equipment that holds the majority of my weight for the majority of an Ironman. That is my saddle. Saddles are a very personal. In fact, it may be the most personal decision you make in the sport. For me there is only one. It is the Cobb Fifty Five JOF. I have been racing triathlon since 2006 and when I started I didn’t realize how vital this one small piece of equipment is to being comfortable and fast on the bike. So, tried many of them – and I struggled. I recall having to tilt my saddles downward or swapping them every few weeks just to recover my sore spots. In 2011, someone introduced me to John Cobb, and I rode my first Cobb Saddle. The revelation was immediate. It was different. My “delicates” were happy. In the past three years, I have always used the Cobb PLUS saddle and I loved it. But, I kept testing. Jon recommended that, because of body and the way I am positioned on the bike, I should test the new Fifty Five JOF model. I immediately felt that is was the best fit for the way I am positioned on the bike now. It’s amazing how much a simple decision like this one can affect results. So, while I know the decision is personal, I encourage you to test as many saddles as you can and never overlook this vital piece of equipment. It is really the one thing between you and the road for all those hours of training and racing. You should love it the way I love the Fifty Five...

This post was written for Witsup.com and appeared there in March. Note from Stef at Witsup that appeared at the start of my piece: “No one has said “whoopsidaisies” for fifty years and even then it was only little girls with blonde ringlets,” (Notting Hill – 1999), UNTIL, a multiple Ironman champion admitted to having a propensity for being a klutz. Said multiple Ironman champion, Mary Beth Ellis, is one of the, if not THE toughest cookies on the triathlon circuit. She started the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii last year with a broken collarbone! They don’t get much more Tonka-Tuff than Ellis! However, while she is tough, she is also accident prone. Here she shares a few injuries and incidents that are a little left field, but we’re sure a few of you have encountered as well… I have a dirty secret. Here goes. I am a klutz. I have had more than my fair share of injuries from the legit breaks and strains (which I won’t discuss in this article as I’ll leave that to the true medical professionals) to the bizarre triathlon battle scars. In this article, I’ll touch on the minor, trivial, and often absurd so that you can hopefully learn something or at worst just laugh at my travails. Swimming injuries When lane lines attack – My run-ins with the vicious lane line span from a minor dust-up to a near death collision that left me beached like a whale on its rotund body. I tried retaliating by takin down the lane line with my paddles, but I still lost. I ended up doggie paddling away a torn up mess. Next time I’ll show up to the pool with a knife and threaten to cut it – surely that is enough to intimidate any recalcitrant lane line and keep it in its place. When fellow H20 users attack – I’ve been on the receiving end of a severe bashing from a fellow swimmer in a shared lane and in the open water. To avoid this, pick the lane without the crazy tall windmill swimmer whose arms span seven feet if possible. If not, then practice your open water swim skills in the lane and pull your arms in tight every time you pass your lane mate/foe. In open water training or in a race, there is an easy fix. Just swim away from the aggressive bashing swimmers. In a long race, it pays off to even stop and swim to the other side of the course just to get away and not spend four kilometres getting hit every stroke. When UFOs attack (unidentified floating object) – The “funniest” swimming incident for me was being hit in the open water by a sailboat. Yes, a rogue sailboat! It cut through our swim pack and made a beeline for me. The centerboard left a nasty hematoma...

When you find your partner in life you stop looking… Why? Well, because you have found the person you want to be by your side for the rest of your life. I feel the same way about my sponsors. When I find what I think are the best products, I will do whatever it takes to keep these partnerships. Yet, I know plenty of other professional athletes who choose to swap shoes and bike and wetsuits and nutrition, year-after-year, chasing money. I don’t claim my way is the right way, but I tried the alternative early in my career and sacrificed performance as a result. Simply, my philosophy is to choose the products that work best for me first. It makes me happy because all the money in the world won’t help on race day if you have an under-performing product. And, while most of the high-end triathlon products are good, that doesn’t mean they are the perfect fit for me. So, how do I define “best for me?” It hasn’t been easy. But, here’s a tour of my training and racing essentials: Cervelo Cervelo P3 or P5, for example, have been my bike of choice the past three years. After riding Cervelo, I could not go back to any other brand. It is no surprise that Cervelo has the best cyclists in the sport riding their bikes. When athletes have to invest in their own bikes, they choose Cervelo, and I think that’s because Cervelo constantly reinvests in research and engineering to ensure that they have the most aerodynamic, responsive, and lightest frames on the market. In an Ironman event, you spend most the day on the bike. I want to know that the bike I am riding is the best out there, and I want to know that the people behind it will help me optimize my performance on the bike and use my experience to shape the future of their triathlon bikes. TYR As a swimmer, I am picky about swim gear. So, I have used TYR goggles and swimsuits for years. I always preferred their goggles to any other brand and would buy a new pair for every race. And, their speed suits fit around the chest and shoulders better than anything else I’ve tried. In fact, after several frustrating speed suit issues, including ripping one hours before Ironman World Champs, I actually switched to TYR’s Torque Elite swim skin at my own expense before making them an official partner. Now, I’ve been lucky enough to have them on my team for the past two years, and I wouldn’t recommend anything else. ON Running I first tried ON running shoes at the end of 2012 and wasn’t sure I liked them. They were so different from anything else I had run in. Now, after racing and training in the shoes for the past year, I...

This is supposed to be a take on the scary yellow brick road journey where Dorothy and her ragamuffin band of friends are all scared of the lions, and tigers and bears! Only my yellow brick road is the one down the aisle to get married in about six months and the animals are the ones one the potential menu. Planning a wedding hasn’t been too stressful yet but I guess I am only halfway there. In fact it has been pretty fun and a nice diversion from the daily grind of training. This week, we went up to the mountains where we will be getting married in December and had the arduous task of tasting the menu and desserts. It was so tough just like I imagine an Ironman must be. We tasted a bunch of starters then of course salmon and duck and lamb followed by three different types of cake. Eric clearly was a fan of the chocolate cake as we had to pry it from his hands just to get a taste. As we move closer to the wedding date it is all getting very real! I have been trying to get a handle on all the wedding details that need to be finalized now as I will be leaving to head to Leysin to rejoin the team in early June. Having the deadline of the last training camp in Thailand and now this one in Switzerland makes it easy as I don’t have time to debate over small decisions for the wedding. I just have to interview a few vendors talk it over with Eric then pull the trigger. There is no time to dilly and dally and it has made me more efficient. But I am now starting to get excited for camp as I read about team members already arriving there. I am sad to be leaving Eric and Mr. Fur but eager to get back smashing sessions with the group and Doc. It is hard training solo at home sometimes and will be nice to have the support and camaraderie. Also, it will be nice to have some time to just relax (aka train like an animal then sleep and eat) and not think about selling my house, moving, or the wedding for...